| Fenian dynamite campaign | |
|---|---|
| Type | bombing campaign |
| Location | Great Britain |
| Target | government, military, police and infrastructure |
| Date | 1881–1885 |
| Executed by | Irish Republican Brotherhood |
The Fenian dynamite campaign (or Fenian bombing campaign) was a bombing campaign that took place in Great Britain from 1881 to 1885. It was carried out by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), nicknamed the "Fenians", who launched attacks on infrastructure as well as government, military and police targets.
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In November 1867, Richard O’Sullivan-Burke, a senior Fenian arms agent, was arrested. O’Sullivan-Burke was subsequently imprisoned on remand in Clerkenwell Prison, London. On 13 December an attempt to rescue him was made by blowing a hole in the prison wall. The explosion was seriously misjudged; it demolished not only a large section of the wall, but also a number of tenement houses opposite in Corporation Lane (now Row) resulting in 12 people being killed and over 50 suffering a range of injuries.
Michael Barrett was caught and charged for the Clerkenwell bombing. He was the last man to be publicly hanged in England.
The Clerkenwell Prison bombing was the most infamous action carried out by the Fenians in Great Britain. It resulted in a long-lived backlash that fomented much hostility against the Irish community in Great Britain. The radical, Charles Bradlaugh, condemned the incident in his newspaper The National Reformer as an act "calculated to destroy all sympathy, and to evoke the opposition of all classes". The bombing had a traumatic effect on British working-class opinion. Karl Marx, then living in London, observed:
The London masses, who have shown great sympathy towards Ireland, will be made wild and driven into the arms of a reactionary government. One cannot expect the London proletarians to allow themselves to be blown up in honour of Fenian emissaries.[1]
The day before the explosion, the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, had banned all political demonstrations in London in an attempt to put a stop to the weekly meetings and marches that were being held in support of the Fenians. He had feared that the ban might be challenged, but the explosion had the effect of turning public opinion in his favour.